EXPLORING HOW AMERICANS' MUSICAL
PREFERENCES
ARE
SHAPED BY THEIR POSITIONS IN THE SOCIAL HIERARCHY

For they must be beware of change to a strange form of music, taking it
to be
a danger to the whole. For never are the ways of music moved without the greatest potential
laws being moved.

Socrates in Plato's Republic

The relationship between social status and aesthetic sensitivities has long been
observed, producing
"highbrow" and "lowbrow" distinctions of tastes. Underly such designations, of
course, is
the implied superiority of the former over the latter. To be "highbrow" means having
cultivated aesthetic sensitivities and appreciation which the "uncultured" masses don't have as
they require considerable education, sophistication, and "class." In other words, it is another
dimension by which the social elite can claim specialness and worthiness of others' deference.
To be "high" means not being "low" in the social hierarchy, and it is those in power positions
who so label their social lessers in order to protect their power and prestige.

How specific leisure pursuits and preferences--i.e., forms of sport (for instance,
polo or
fox hunting vs. boxing or bowling), dance (i.e., ballet vs. Western), reading (i.e., Thackeray
vs.
comic books) and movie (i.e., "Rambo" vs. "foreign films") preferences, and music -- become
recognized as being either high or low pro provide many fascinating stories. For instance,
Levine's Highbrow/Lowbrow argues how Shakespeare was considered in the
nineteen
century U.S. to be of the realm of popular culture, only to be transformed by the "cultural
elite"
into an author of messages deemed incomprehensible by the masses.

Critical theorists typically argue that the elite have hegemony--defined
by Antonio Gramsci (1971) as the way a
"certain
way of life and thought is dominant, in which one concept of reality is diffused thoughout
public society in all its institutions and private manifestations"-- over aesthetic orders. Given
the power of art--to maximize the meaning-carrying capacity of cultural symbols and mediums,
to crystallize cultural anxieties or to push a culture's emotional hot buttons--its control should,
from the elites' perspective, come from the top. Thus, the diffusion of cultural modes should
be expected to flow from the upper to lower classes. However, the reverse has often occurred.
Consider, for instance, the "low culture" roots of such music as jazz
A>
and blues.

When considering Americans' musical tastes, in addition to social class there are
matters of race, generation and age--other dimensions shaping the social hierarchy. Consider,
for instance, how music serves as a group totem, a unique emblem for one's self
and
one's association. High schools, colleges, businesses and nations all have their anthems.
Rock-
and-roll is the music of adolescence, it is "their" music. With
time replacing space as a basis of social solidarities, music has also become a sort of
generational totem, as a focus of age group identifications: common memories are stored with
the songs of the era and the "in" sound for coming-of-age individuals may well be carried with
them throughout their lifespan; the World War I tunes now heard in nursing homes will be
replaced by the those of Beatles (what will "When I'm Sixty-Four" mean to aging Boomers?);
and generations grow old with "their artists" (i.e., Diana Ross moving from "Puppy Love" to
songs capturing the complexities of midlife; Frank Sinatra taking his audience from bobby-
soxers to "It Was a Very Good Year").

With these ideas in mind, let us turn to some data. In its 1993 General Social
Survey,
NORC researchers asked Americans about their musical preferences. Sixteen types of music
(e.g., big band/swing, bluegrass, classical music-symphony and chamber, jazz, rap, reggae,
heavy metal, etc.) were presented. For each, subjects were asked "Can you
tell me which of the statements comes closes to your feeling about about
this type of music--Do you (1) like it very much, (2) like it, (3) have
mixed feelings, (4) dislike it, or (5)dislike it very much?"